The Wild Animal Park beats the Discovery Channel, if you have the coin and can get there.

Hang-gliding off the cliffs of Torrey Pines must be thrilling, whether you're able to walk afterward or not. Surfing off La Jolla at sunset seems a legal opiate, provided you have the motor skills for it.

The Chargers cannot be considered as scenic as San Diego's many splendors.

San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Chargers defensive back Derek Cox can't stop Donnie Avery in the first quarter on this touchdown play for the Chiefs on this 32 yard pass play.
— Sean M. Haffey

San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Donnie Avery hauls in this long pass in the first quarter beating Derek Cox, which then set up a touchdown the next play.
— Sean M. Haffey

San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Chargers defensive back Derek Cox can't stop Donnie Avery in the first quarter on this touchdown play for the Chiefs on this 32 yard pass play.
— Sean M. Haffey

Eleven games into this season, many things can be said about these Chargers. They are, in fact, a losing team (5-6). They are tied with five others in the slog for the AFC's final playoff spot. It seems their defense has starters who should be on the bench, and players on the bench who should be on the practice squad.

What you can't say about them, is that they induce yawns.

Except for their victory over the Jaguars of Jacksonsville-London, every time the Chargers have played, the outcome was in doubt in the fourth quarter.

The Broncos, the only AFC team that qualifies as royalty, were in San Diego three games ago and ran up a 22-point lead. Eventually, they won, but not before the Chargers closed to 28-20 and got the ball back.

For at least another week, those wishing for the Chargers to lose out and up into a better draft slot will have to concede the playoffs are still a possibility, even if a slim one.

No doubt the Vegas sharps are noticing, and have a lot to chew on as they size up next Sunday's game against the Bengals (7-4). Sunday's win over the Chiefs, who'd gone seven years without being favored against them, was the Chargers' fourth upset this year of an oddsmakers' favorite.

The carnies at NFL HQ, meantime, should be pulling for the Chargers to reach the playoffs even if San Diego's TV market is smallish. Entertainment is what the NFL serves up. The Chargers may not be artful but they do know suspense. More to the point, they have a franchise quarterback who, it says here, is having his best season. The more franchise quarterbacks in the playoffs, the more engaging the Super Bowl tournament is.

There are other formidable QBs in this particular race, in Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco.

Rivers is the fresher face, though. The other two have been to the Super Bowl since Rivers last got to the playoffs in 2009. The way he's playing now, he'd worry any defense.

An 8-8 team may get the AFC's final playoff spot, but considering the tiebreakers that work against them, the Chargers may need to go 9-7, which would mean finishing 5-1 counting Sunday's upset.

Do not consider this a prediction, but the longheld theory here is that if the Chargers are ever to win a Super Bowl, they'll have to do it is an underdog and probably a heavy underdog. San Diego's foremost sports teams shouldn't be allowed to just march to any title, given how ridiculously gorgeous the weather and scenery are here. Something starkly opposite is what it'll take. A blemish-laden jaunt to the playoffs no one saw coming, say. All told, enough luck to make a leprechaun blush.